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OK, yeah, you got me Spare. I've read a little (Oh God am I simply reveling in the afterglow), but I spent much of the day helping my daughter build a model of the solar system. I swear to God is there a single person alive that hasn't built a styrofoam ball solar system? Life is good.

Just messing with you guys, but I felt like at least getting a good old, "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS GREAT" in there before I start breaking things down. I said last week that finals was this week.

We passed.

OFFENSEQB: AWhat... wait... no A+?! No...and not because of game management, which Shaw does better than any other QB in the SEC. It's because on his two deep balls he waited a half-second too late to throw the ball, resulting in tougher catches than our WR's needed to make and keeping the catches from being TDs. Both Byrd and DL could have WALKED IN if the throws would have been on time. I think the shoulder bothers Shaw a little on the deep balls. That being said, the TD throw to Bruce was amazing. He sold the misdirection and then threw a rope back across his body with perfect velocity, right over the LB that was dropping back and down into Bruce's waiting arms. AMAZING. That play, and the way he punked UGA's LB into dropping off coverage of Marcus so he could complete the pass, complete Shaw's evolution into the most dangerous QB in the SEC.

Yeah, I said that.

RB: A+The running lanes weren't always there, but Marcus and Kenny POUNDED Georgia. Marcus made some amazing cuts, caught the ball well out of the backfield, and generally kept Georgia's D playing scared all night. Well done gentlemen, well done. Props to Ball Coach for making sure Marcus got to 100 yards as well. He's well aware that Marcus has gone for over 100 every time he's played Georgia.

WR/TE: A+DL Moore played like a grown man. I'll eat my crow just like a lot of other Gamecock fans. I heard Spurrier after the game say that he'd told DL "you're a good football player, just go out there and play." He did. Ace, Bruce, Justice, and Buster owned Rambo and Co. all day. We could have had the TE drag all day long, we just didn't need it.

OL: BBefore you get mad at me... these guys dominated most of the day, just not enough for an A. Frankly, the way our D was playing, we should have put 50 on Georgia and wore the Georgia D down. Unfortunately, we had too many 3 and outs to do that, and even let Georgia hang around for longer than we should have. Yes, Georgia stacked the box and we continued to run right at them, but I would have loved to have seen these guys lean on UGA and beat them up a little more than they did. That being said, Shell had a great game, and seems to be getting better by the week. Pass protection was fantastic and the only reason we ever took a sack is because Shaw won't put the ball in danger.

DEFENSEDL: A+Oh. My. God. Yes, Clowney and Devin put on a show, but tucked away amongst all that was the masterpiece painted by our DTs. Byron and Kelcy absolutely owned this game. Byron run stuffed about as well as I've ever seen and Kelcy was a disruptive force up the middle. Georgia had no answer for our D-line, it was just a straight up whipping. By the way, did anyone catch how Chaz Sutton, you know the back-up DE, pancaked the starting Georgia guard and sacked Murray, all in about 2 seconds? Folks, remember this year, you'll be telling friends and family in the years to come how you watched the best D-line the Gamecocks ever had. Yes, we miss MI6 and Travian, but only in the sense that the US Navy wouldn't say no to an extra aircraft carrier.

LB/Spur: A+For some time now fans have been wondering when Holloman would take the training wheels off and ball out. Turns out the answer was this week. An absolute monster game by him and the rest of the LB crew. This unit filled more gaps than a WPA/TVA work crew (Google it). Gurley/Marshall got straight up exposed this week. Did someone call our LB corps slow? Yeah, OK

CB/S: AWould have been an A+, but Auguste seems determined to have at least one (hey...what?) moment a game. Hampton got lost one time, but came right back to make an amazing play in the end zone. These guys would'a could'a should'a had at least two picks, but I loved how physical they played. All is not roses, however, as they let the UGA WR's get over the top and release several times during the game. Thankfully, Murray spent too much time looking out his ear-hole to notice, but I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite us later.

SPECIAL TEAMSOverall: C
ACE SANDERS: A+At this point, you might as well view a FG attempt as a welcome amusement from the rest of the football match. Kickoffs are back to being a variety show, and coverage isn't so much lane containment as it is, RUN THAT WAY, HEY THERE'S THE GUY WITH THE BALL.

Holy crap Ace is the best return man in football. Here's an idea, on offense, let's line him up 20 yards behind Shaw, have Shaw get the snap, turn, and throw the ball 30 yards straight up in the air to him.

Then we'll just let Ace do his thing.

Seriously though, let's do more Percy Harvin-type plays with him. He's a weapon.

COACHINGOverall: A++I have no idea what Georgia did to Spurrier. Perhaps they killed his father, maybe they kidnapped the little girl he was charged with protecting, or it could be that they tried to human-traffic his oldest daughter while she vacationed in Paris. Whatever the offense, Spurrier has dedicated his life to stomping the mud out of the Bulldogs, which is A-OK by me. A lot of you guys were wondering if we'd see a lot of exotic formations or special plays that we've held in reserve. Nope. Spurrier had seen their film, and knew that all we had to do to beat them was to play them straight up. We didn't do anything fancy at all, we just lined up and dismantled them. Game ball has to go to Whammy. That was, without a doubt, the best defensive performance I've ever seen out of a USC team. Even when we stalled offensively in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, our defense smacked around Georgia like they owed us money. I was so, so wrong about Ward. Do you guys realize how rarely we blitzed against Georgia? We didn't need to. His game plan was deathly simple: Line up and rush 4, send the LBs into the right gaps, and have the secondary cover just long enough to let the line do their work. He also did a fantastic job of mixing up coverages and disguising where pressure was coming from. Stunning.

INTANGIBLES Overall: A+
Oh, hello national stage, I didn't see you standing there... With the rest of the nation looking on, we set about Georgia like those guys in Casino taking baseball bats to Joe Pesci in a corn field. I mean, there were times when it was downright uncomfortable. Had it been a boxing match, it would have been stopped. I'll be honest with you guys, it doesn't matter if you believe in this team or not... THEY BELIEVE. They were not intimidated by Georgia AT ALL... in fact, they KNEW in their hearts they were better, and then they went and proved it. Before the game during warm ups, I saw Georgia pull a bush-league move. They all lined up at the 50, held their helmets up, and walked slowly at our student section, woofing it up after they got there. When a team does that, they're simply trying to convince themselves that they can do it.

I knew we had them then.

FINAL THOUGHTSWell, I ran the numbers last week and said we'd beat UGA 35 - 24. I was so wrong, and want to apologize to our defense. The crowd certainly made life easier for them, but those guys were on an absolute mission last week. All the talk leading up to the game centered on UGA's offense, and the Gurley-Marshall. I think that really motivated the guys, and they came out and straight out hit Georgia in the mouth. They did not get up.

Kudos to our fans too. I've been a bit critical at times at how our fans start strong but then go quiet once a team converts a few third downs. Not this week. That was an INSANE environment, and after watching it on TV today I can say that if you only watched it on TV you didn't get a sense of just how loud, and how crazy it really was. Georgia was inside a blender all game long. The crowd never, and I mean never, let up. Well done.

So now the door is opened. Yes, we have a brutal stretch coming up. We have LSU on the road, then Florida on the road and close out with Arkansas, Tennessee, Wofford, and Clemson. Frankly, we're talented enough to win out. That doesn't mean we will. Our offense still stalls too much, and Baton Rouge and Gainesville are tough places to play. Still, you have to like the fact that we're legit national title contenders, and that we'll be playing on the biggest stages in the country over the next two weeks.

At the beginning of the season everyone, me included, had penciled in an "L" for the LSU game. After watching them struggle, and watching us de-manhood Georiga it's going to be tempting to think that game will be easy for us.

It won't.

Unless we play 'Bama in the SEC title game, we're about to see the best defense we'll play against all year. Our OL will have to play their best game of the year, and their crowd will limit what we can do on O in a way similar to how we limited Georgia. However, our D should be able to handle LSU, and unless they get worn down if we get stalled on offense, we should be able to take the crowd out of the game and win it.

The keys to beating LSU are similar to what we used to beat UGA. Don't get fancy on offense, practice screens, quick slants, and misdirection a lot more this week, as LSU's d-line is not likely to allow us to run any type of power game at all, and stretch the field vertically to open up the run game. On D, just continue to play run support the way you did against Georgia. LSU thrives on the big play. Take that away from them, and they're toast.

one note... on Sutton's sack the guard actually shifted out to triple team Clowney with the LT and the TE, so Sutton actually blew up the Center. Doesn't change how badass of a play it was by Sutton, but it's another instance of how Clowney makes things happen even when he's not getting stats.

gotta disagree again about the OL, they are the reason we scored 28 of our 35, They manhandled UGAy's line the whole night, and the only sack we gave up was when Shaw held the ball for 10 seconds and didn't throw it away. Our guys played great, and they deserve an A.

agree the Oline deserved an A+. Shaw still holds on too long. gotta fix that if we are going to make it back to Atlanta. I've watched the game 3 times already and am still amazed what a complete azzwhippin' that was.

one note... on Sutton's sack the guard actually shifted out to triple team Clowney with the LT and the TE, so Sutton actually blew up the Center. Doesn't change how badass of a play it was by Sutton, but it's another instance of how Clowney makes things happen even when he's not getting stats.

I know Sutton looked like a beast. Though the RG stepped behind their center's right leg, which tripped him backwards. Granted that still means Sutton was pushing him back up the middle, which for pass protection shouldn't be happening. The results made Murray fall down before Sutton even really got to him. A scarey sight I'm sure.